Spring’s Learning Adventures
by Deborah Lanser
Introduction
Get ready to start planning your spring class schedule when the catalog comes out on Wednesday, February 19. Once again, the Curriculum Committee has ensured we will be spoiled for choice. Are you interested in gardening, writing your memoir, learning to play bridge, speaking better, or appreciating wine? How about American history? Protecting your personal data from hackers? Politics and the arts or the media? What about music, dance, or the visual arts? Then there’s exercise to improve physical and mental well-being. Or you can consider the criminal justice system. You can even learn about poisons. Zoom classes will be held on consecutive Thursdays starting on March 6, and in-person classes start on March 7.
Remember, the registration process is a bit different this year. On Thursday, February 27, you can register for one class only, while on Friday, February 28, you can sign up for as many additional classes as you want. For more information, read Carmela Gersbeck’s article, “Spring Registration Update,” that appears next in this issue. Meanwhile, here’s a foretaste of what will be on offer. And good luck choosing which ones to take!
Physical Well-Being
Exercise and Aging is a subject of immediate interest to most of us. Ray Yip, MD, (LLI) will review the scientific evidence that exercise can benefit not just physical reserve but also cognitive reserve, thereby expanding the healthy span of our lives.
Somatic movement therapist Kelly Garone will explain the six principles for safe, functional, regenerative movement. These principles can be applied to exercise and activities of daily living, to enhance coordination, prevent injury, and make possible a sense of personal satisfaction through movement. As a result, participants will Learn to Move Smarter, Not Harder.
Forty percent of people over 70 fall at least once a year, and one in five of these falls results in serious injury. In “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up:” A Fall Prevention Class, chiropractor Dr. Russell Charno will demonstrate strengthening and balance exercises that help everyone stay on their feet.
For persons of every fitness level, Linda Cassidy will provide an Introduction to Hatha Yoga. She will review the fundamentals of classic Hatha Yoga as developed and brought to the West by BKS Iyengar, including the principles of movement, awareness, and breath meditation.
United States Affairs
Join Martha Honey (LLI), Pat Keeton (LLI), and Felice Gelman (LLI) as they investigate Media and Politics: Strengthening or Undermining US Society? They will interview several nationally known journalists and activists about the influence of US media on politics and public discourse.
According to the ACLU, the United States has 5% of the world’s population but nearly 20% of the world’s incarcerated people. Yet increased incarceration has no effect on violent crime, and longer sentences do not deter crime. To grapple with the questions surrounding justice in America, Barbara Danish (LLI) and Laura Brown (LLI) will ask, What Are Prisons For? Thinking About Justice.
Music and Dance
Practicing safe, accessible dance technique can improve balance, strength, and flexibility. Judith Nelson (LLI) invites members to cultivate joy and enrich their minds, bodies, and spirits by learning the FUNdamentals of Dance and Dance Making.
Ray Erickson will continue his exploration of Debussy and His World by focusing on the composer’s second book of Préludes. Attendees will enjoy live performances of these short but amazing pieces that provide reflections about Debussy’s world.
Grammy award–winning composer Joan Tower’s Music! Music! Music! will thrill participants with live performances of chamber music, classical repertoire, and some original compositions by Bard students from the Bard Conservatory of Music. After the performances, Professor Tower will introduce the musicians and moderate a lively Q&A session.
Do you love to sing? Or do you think you can’t? Then Singing Together for Spirit and Joy may be for you. Nancy Theeman will introduce some fundamentals of vocal technique before encouraging participants to join in a community sing, even for those who can’t read music.
Art and Politics
Authoritarianism and the Arts will examine how the literary, visual, and performing arts have functioned in authoritarian societies, the role they play in supporting or opposing those societies, and some of the consequences of dissident artistic expression. To illustrate those points, Chuck Mishaan (LLI) will discuss specific artistic works and present video excerpts of relevant performances and analyses.
According to Peter Scheckner (LLI), mass media in a democracy “manufactures” public beliefs to benefit the interests of specific political and economic players. He will illustrate that concept by examining documentary and feature films in Manufactured Consent: How Cinema Has Shaped Public Relations.
American History
Join Tom Walker (LLI) as he explores the people, politics, and economy of the United States during its first two centuries. Among the topics discussed in Becoming America: From Colony to Constitutional Republic will be confrontations with Indigenous inhabitants, the institution of slavery, and the fledgling beginnings at self-governance that led to the movement for independence from Britain.
The Visual Arts
The human figure has long been a common image in many art forms from a variety of cultures. In The Human Figure in World Art, Jose Moreno-Lacalle will provide an overview of the ways human figures have been depicted around the world over the centuries.
Frederic Church’s house and landscape at Olana are often regarded as the artist’s masterpiece. It was also where he hosted many notable writers, thinkers, naturalists, and artists of his day. As discussed with Carolyn Keogh in Olana: The People Behind the Place, these influential figures played a vital role in the development of this remarkable place.
Those who are interested in the Hudson Valley art scene can enjoy Contemporary Artists of the Hudson Valley: Insider Tours. Participants will visit the studios and galleries of contemporary Hudson Valley artists, who will share their inspirations, processes, and careers. Artworks will include abstract paintings, installation art, natural realism, ceramics, and large-scale sculptures.
Leisure Time
If you’ve never played bridge or if your skills have gotten rusty, Contract Bridge for Beginners may be for you. After reviewing the rules, bidding, scoring, and strategies of the game, Tom Mayer, MD, will provide players with the knowledge and experience needed to play bridge in a variety of formal and informal settings.
Medicine
A poison is any chemical that interacts with normal physiology to produce an undesirable, sometimes fatal effect. Such substances may include nutritional overdoses, environmental toxins, industrial toxins, and poisons of cholinergic neural transmission. Lovers of mystery stories may glean some insight into methods of dispatching unwary victims as John Ferguson (LLI) explores the Biology of Non-Infectious Diseases: Poisons, Natural and Unnatural.
Gardening Pleasures
As Achva Benzinberg Stein (LLI) will explain in Nature Landscape and Gardens, the garden is a three-dimensional sculpture that reflects the values and practices of a society, while the landscape is a practical manifestation of the human ability to sustain its life on earth. She will provide examples of these concepts to deepen our understanding of the relationship between landscapes, gardens, and culture.
Learn about growing your own “green thumb” with expert horticulturalist TIm Steinhoff and a variety of speakers. Gardening NOW! will provide beginning and experienced gardeners with some expert advice on how to recreate, renew, and rethink their spring gardens.
Enjoying the Hudson Valley
Environmental educator Laura Conner will lead LLI hikes on Three Minnewaska Hikes. Each walk will feature education served with a side of scenic views, cultural history, and signs of wildlife.
Both sides of the river offer ample opportunities for Springtime Walking and Hiking in the Scenic Hudson Valley. Robin Berger (LLI) and Vicki Hoener (LLI) will guide members who have sturdy footwear on five hikes on various footpaths, including the beautiful rail trails.
Cyberdefense
Knowing your personal data is available to malefactors and being able to protect yourself from them are two different things. That’s where Riva Tadjer comes in. By putting class members through Cyber Boot Camp, she will help you put behavioral protocols in place so you are no longer a target.
Wine
Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink more wine.” Paul McLaughlin (LLI) will help members avoid that regret while becoming more knowledgeable oenophiles by offering Sip and Savor: A Journey Through Wines.
Speaking and Writing
Memoirs, according to author and editor Ann Patty, can weave back and forth in time, exploring how we remember before from after or how before influenced who we are now. In the Memoir Workshop: From Then to Now, she will help aspiring memoirists understand how to use a variety of literary approaches in their own writing.
In FInding Your Voice: Reading Aloud, Alan Lipper (LLI) helps class members develop the acting skills to perform public readings of essays, short stories, monologues, and poetry. As they practice vocal exercises to enhance resonance and create a delivery system that is conversational and real, students learn to captivate their audience with directness and simplicity and, in doing so, find their voices.
Patty Kane Horrigan believes that The Fairy Tale Experience we had as children may continue to be relevant to us throughout our lives. The class will undertake a deep look into familiar fairy tales and examine the part they have played in our lives and the world at large.
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